ARIZONA: THE IDEAL VACATION GROUND OF THE WORLD

Along the Coronado Trail

By RAYMOND CARLSON Editor, Arizona Highways IN JULY, 1540, a Spanish gentleman by the name of Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, "for the glory of God and the King of Spain," passed through southeastern Arizona looking for gold and the Seven Cities of Cibola.

Several hundred years later the Becker family landed in Springerville and Pete Riley landed in Clifton, but it was not until 1926 that a road was built between those two towns, following Coronado's footsteps, traversing one of the most wildly beautiful mountain regions of the west. The road is not open in the winter, for heavy snows pile up on mountains but from May to early October the road is open and it offers a high adventure in motoring.

You start your drive in Clifton, in Greenlee county, 3460 feet above sea level. Clifton nestles in the shadows of Blue range, a separate and distant range of mountains in eastern Arizona, which derives its name from the blue haze which hangs over its lofty peaks, its wooded canyons.

From Clifton the Coronado Trail climbs leisurely up Chase creek, and Metcalf canyon, past Metcalf, ghost copper mining town, for miles to Cherry lodge, 6000 feet in elevation; then climbs more briskly for another seven miles to Grey's peak, 7500 feet in elevation. It is important to note the elevations in order to visualize the ascent and descent.

The trail leads you down after Grey's peak for several miles to a mesa, where the road is broad, flat and straight. You are in a ranch country, sage brush, mesquite, scrub oak, similar to many regions in the state. The Trail leads upward again, for your second climb of the trip to Rose peak, up to 8000 feet in elevation. You have left the mesquite and sage brush behind. The forests loom beside you. The air is light and cool and on clear days you see for miles about you. Rose peak is about 45 miles from Clifton. After Rose peak the Trail goes down again 15 miles to Rattlesnake Springs. The road is a dirt and gravelled road, not wide, but safe and there is so much for you to see that you do not attempt to drive swiftly.

The Trail begins to rise again after Rattlesnake Springs and this time, your third climb of the trip, you go to the top of Blue range nearly 10,000 feet above sea level, and then you have the full realization of what beautiful country really is. Deep canyons, wearing dense forest covering, are at your very feet. You look off into the distance and on a clear bright day you can see the dark mysterious mountains of Mexico.

HE Coronado Trail from Clifton to Springerville provides a high adventure in motoring pleasure through a rugged, beautiful mountain region

In dark stormy weather, the effect of the misty clouds lying down on you on the mountain is almost terrifying. You look into the canyons and then the forest is lost in the clouds below and up ahead of you on the road the trees vanish again into the clouds, and you seem to be hemmed in on all sides by the clouds, and suddenly you seem to be all alone and Farther on one has a remarkable view down into K. P. Cienega with its ever green meadows flanked on all sides with heavy virgin timber, the only opening being on the far side of the Cienega where a deep narrow canyon has been made by K. P. Creek, which flows to join its north fork at K. P. falls, thence east to the Blue river. Topping over the divide at K. P. Cienega, one of the most entrancing spots on the Coronado Trail, you are led into a new world and at once find yourself in the midst of the greatest uncut stand of timber in the United States, completely surrounded by a dense growth of yellow pine, Douglas fir, stately aspen, white pine and spruce of various varieties, broken only by open meadows carpeted with Spanish iris, white daisies, and blooming locust. Here the road blazes a path through a continuous pine and aspen forest and with each turn of the wheel a new vista opens before you, and soon you arrive at historic Hannigan Meadow, 73 miles from Clifton, 9000 feet above sea level, and the most beautiful camping grounds in the entire west. The meadow opens up before the motorist like a vast space of a city park, with pine and spruce banking each side, with only a narrow opening visible where the road leaves at the opposite end to follow Hannigan Creek to the forks of the road at Hannigan bridge, six miles from the meadow, where Sprucedale Ranch road branches to the left of the Coronado Trail.

Leaving Hannigan Meadow the Trail passes the New Ranger Station and follows Hannigan Creek for six miles, then swerves lightly away from the creek on its level drop to Alpine 22 miles from Hannigan, and 8200 feet above sea level, passing Coronado Lodge at the foot of Sunset mountain, two miles south of Alpine.

Alpine, a small mountain town, is the center of a summer vacation land. From Alpine in the summer sportsmen drive to Back river and other streams for trout. Alpine valley is a beautiful region where the mighty forests border mountain meadows. The Trail suffers no more fits of temperament or altitude from Alpine to Springerville. The Trail goes through Nutrioso to Eager and then to Springerville, all picturesque mountain towns. The 125 mile trip from Clifton to Springerville is a remarkable one. You cross the Blue range which is that area lying south of Campbell Blue Creek on the east and Beaver Creek and the Black river on the west and between the Blue river and Eagle Creek to Clifton's back door. You have crossed that portion of the White Mountains from Beaver Creek to Springerville. You have been in Crook national forest and the Apache national forest. You have been on towering mountain peaks, through grass carpeted valleys. You have been awed and subdued in one of the greatest standing forests in America. You have glimpsed one of Arizona's wildest, most virgin regions. Coronado went that way in the sixteenth century. In the twentieth century you, too, can go that way, and your trip will be one of high adventure and pleasure.